Cleopatra Boy

Cleopatra Boy, a multidisciplinary performance about how women (and other non-straight/white/male) leaders’ histories are re-written, maligned, or erased. The iconic Egyptian pharaoh’s historic, mythic, and fictional representations across time inspired our ensemble to create a performance that will speak to the present moment. Using a wide range of sources from Plutarch, to Shakespeare, to Elizabeth Taylor, we employ the contemporary practice of Restorative Justice to reimagine anti-patriarchal power—in Cleopatra’s time and our own. Collaborating with Detroit specialists in the field, Cleopatra Boy dramatizes the methods of Truth & Reconciliations commissions, examining how depictions of Cleopatra have been shaped through the Western male gaze. Part pageant, part courtroom drama, our audience will shape-shift from spectators, to community members, to witnesses as we collectively address the injustice of losing control of our own narratives in order to rethink and remake history.